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Democrat Kim Schrier wins House race in Washington state, flipping a Republican district

November 8, 20181:59 pm

Kim Schrier (Kim Schrier for Congress)

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(JTA) — Kim Schrier, a Jewish Democrat in Washington state running for Congress, has won her race in a district that was Republican.

Schrier garnered nearly 53 percent of the vote against Republican Dino Rossi in the 8th District, according to The New York Times. She will be among 11 Jewish women, including nine in the House, to be elected in the midterms in a record-setting year for women voted into Congress.

With Schrier’s victory, Democrats have gained at least 30 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, with about a dozen still undecided. Democrats took control of the chamber in Tuesday’s election, while Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate.

Schrier is a pediatrician who says she was partly inspired to run after seeing the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. She was endorsed by former President Barack Obama.

In Arizona, Alma Hernandez, a Jewish millennial Mexican-American running for the state House of Representatives, won her race and will be the first Hispanic Jewish woman to hold elected office in the state, if not the country. She also will be the youngest member of the Arizona Legislature.